From The Telegraph, with thanks to Jeffrey Imm and IR1948:
A London school funded by the Saudi Arabian government is facing complaints from parents that it is teaching British children "fundamentalist" Islam while giving girls an inferior education. The King Fahd Academy in Acton, west London, named after the current Saudi ruler, devotes up to 50 per cent of lessons to religious education and teaches almost all classes in Arabic, with boys and girls following different curricula.Former teachers and parents have come forward to criticise the academy's religious teachings for instilling "hostility to the outsider". They also claim that there is discrimination against female pupils. The school was opened 19 years ago for the offspring of Saudi diplomats in London. Since then, many children of British Muslims have joined the school. In 2002, only 37 per cent of the 738 pupils were of Saudi origin.
Among those who currently attend the academy are the children of Abu Hamza, the cleric from Finsbury Park mosque who was arrested last week after the United States applied for his extradition on terrorism charges.
Originally the British and the Saudi curricula were taught side by side. Five years ago, however, the Saudi Arabian government ordered the school to phase out British lessons and to teach Saudi-style classes.
The school is segregated and younger boys and girls are now taught different courses, to comply with Saudi education policy, which states that a girl's education should "enable her to be a successful housewife, an exemplary wife and a good mother" or prepare her for work which is "suitable to her disposition as a woman".
Girls at the academy do barely any physical education and the only type of technology they will learn is "home technology".
Dr Mai Yamani, a research fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, had two daughters at the school, but removed them when she became uncomfortable about the education they were receiving. "I moved my eldest daughter at the age of seven. Her new school said that, in their opinion, she had been 'totally untaught' to that point. They had to put her in a class with much younger children, which was terrible for her.
"The books they taught the girls from kept going on about idolatry and sin and how to avoid it. It was about the fires of hell, torture in the grave and how to make sure that your ways are not those of the infidel.
"The school is trying to make sure that the Saudis who go there abide by the system of state control in Saudi Arabia. The method is 'loyalty to the system and hostility to the outsider'.
"Three years ago I interviewed some of the pupils for a book and some of them were talking as if they didn't live in London at all."
Dr Yamani, the daughter of the former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Yamani,
...an apt a name as there ever was for an oil minister...
believes that girls at the school are given an inferior education to that provided to boys and that they are taught to "know their place".She added: "They consider that the mind of a girl is less capable of absorbing education." Another parent who has two teenage girls at the school is unhappy with the direction the academy is taking.
"It used to be a wonderful school that taught the two traditions side by side. Now only one lesson in six is taken in English. The children would not have the standard to even read the paper by the time they reach A-level," he said.
"It has arrived at a situation where the school seems to be saying: 'This is the only correct version of Islam'. It's such a fundamentalist approach." ...
Pupils in Saudi Arabia are obliged to spend half of the school timetable studying a rigid interpretation of Islam. A recent review of the curriculum by the Saudi government concluded that almost a fifth of lesson plans contained tracts preaching anti-Western and anti-Semitic views. The Saudi education department is now considering a redraft of the whole curriculum.
Defining silence about this from the left wing feminists who normally shriek about discrimination, perceived or imaginary.
In regards to Other countries who have a large contingent there from their embassies: do they Also have their own schools? Or is it only muslim groups?
Gary:
There is an American Community School in Surrey. For that reason many American ex-pats settle in the area. They do the International Baccalauriat (sp). There is a French Lycee in Kensington, London.
"Pupils in Saudi Arabia are obliged to spend half of the school timetable studying a rigid interpretation of Islam."
A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Muslim countries are poor. Hmm, must be the evil westerners and jews that steal their wealth then. Ban them! Ban Pikachu, the zionist infiltrator!
[No, the last sentence is not parody, its reality. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1243307.stm
"Saudi Arabia's mufti, the highest religious authority in the conservative Muslim state, has banned the popular children's play of Pokemon, saying it promotes Zionism and involves gambling." ]
The Saudi government ordered the school to stop the British curriculum and teach the Saudi style? This is outrageous. Doesn't Britain have minimum standards for non-state supported schools? Don't students have to pass tests or meet some standard before they are given a diploma??
As Saudi Arabia has funded many schools and universities here in the United States, perhaps we can now anticipate that in the fututure they will determine the entire curriculum and how the students will treated as they are doing in the schools in Britain.
The Saudis are demonstrating that they don't need an army of tanks and bullets to conquer.
Hey, they are doing this to their own co-ideologists. They like raising them backward and unable to cope with the 21st century without a Koran and a bomb belt.
Since the women are stupid, fill their heads with garbage. That solves all problems!
It was sad really when it said that the girls who were taken out of the Saudi schools were so far behind they had to be taught with the little kids.
I remember something like this in Afganistan/Pakistan with the women knowing how to read before the Taliban, and having to relearn after them. Go to http://amazon.com and search for Sally Armstrong and the book is "Veiled Threat". Go, get, read.
And yet, the thought of CLOSING DOWN this absurdity never enters the mind of politicians.
You harvest what you sow.
I cannot see why the girls parents are so surprised. They are the ones choosing to raise them in a cult that considers women 3rd class citizens with no rights....the schools are just grooming them for what their purpose in life will be...to serve the slovenly slugs they will call husbands, they have no more value than an animal, no freedom of thought, dress or speech...plain and simple...if they want their daughter to have an education and have a life that even approaches being free then dont raise them in the cult of islam...that was an easy one.
"I cannot see why the girls parents are so surprised. They are the ones choosing to raise them in a cult that considers women 3rd class citizens with no rights..."
**Hear hear...I can't imagine why these people are getting upset. They are getting exactly what they are paying for!
I guess Einstien was right.."The difference between genius and stupidity, is that genius has limits."
This has already started here,
Remember in Californis, the students had to dress in Islamic dress, pick Islamic names and have jihad. The courses they were being taught were not even correct in history and made Christians look like murderers.
Also, in South? or North? Carolina, it was mandatory to take Islamic classes if you wanted to graduate from college, no matter what your major was, and of course, the Arab Notebook, that says Muslims were here before Christopher Columbus.
We really need to stay on top of the education our children are getting here.
In Fresno, Ca. there is an Islamic school, thatdoes not teach anything other than the Quran and the same thing is in Virginia, these schools also get public funding through our taxes.
In the case of the Fresno school, there was talk of stopping all funding because the teachers there weren't even certified to teach, but I haven't seen anymore about if funding was pulled.
And, in these 2 schools, the girls were only being taught home ec type classes.
This stuff has been going on here for some time, and our own Teachers Association doesn't even question it.
American and British schools (and god knows where else?) are teaching Islam (whether it be wahabbi, sunni, or shia) to children and enforcing these gross 7th century bedouin practices???
These kids cannot even read properly. America and UK have standardized exams to test children regularly. What would happen if all these kids failed these exams (especially the girls)? I hope politicians and teachers realize fast that the tie that binds with these Saudi backed schools and such failure is Islam. There has be some way to get the word to the board of education, high schools and campuses around the USA and UK. The children are the future......we must stop their minds from being wasted because after a certain age, the mind cannot be saved.
Hello,
same problem here in Germany. A Saudi school (+mosque, called König Fahd Akademie) was build in the former capital Bonn in 1995. A federal security report showed that islamists were moving to Bonn to get their kids into that school and join the friday prayers that asked them to fight jihad. Curriculum must be quite similar, including arabic, very little german, lots of religious teaching and the same sexual apartheid. As the pupils are supposed to be non-permanent foreigners(kids of diplomats etc), they need no german grades and get little public oversight. But many pupils, even with german nationality, got the exception for this school anyway.
Last year, there was some concern about that security report and a TV documentary showing the inciting prayers (filmed with a hidden camera), and the school authorities wanted to inquire.
What happened since?
Little.
40 german pupils were not allowed to stay at that school. One hatemongering teacher was fired due to political pressure(he sued the school about his dismissal and must have been as surprised as the unwilling school that his case was lost). The revision of the curriculum is ..err.. still under way, i suppose.
The german school authorities translated the schoolbooks and didnt approve of the content (only 1week ago).
But nothing will happen, because the Saudis made it very clear that they will retaliate every substantial effort by closing down the German school in Saudi Arabia.
BTW, the Saudis build a branch school in Berlin that nobody talks about at all.
Let me guess for the Saudi schools in France, Norway, Netherlands, ....
scary.
tbc
I just realised all that was also covered by Dhimmi Watch:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/000334.php
SusanB: The US courts would never allow Christians to get away with such things, and if tax monies are going to medressehs, go to COURT NOW! If the Supreme Court speaks of the rights of "Discrete and Insular Minorities" to justify this idiocy, then go to court again and sue for the rights of Christians, Jews, and everyone else to the same.
epg says: "This is outrageous. Doesn't Britain have minimum standards for non-state supported schools?"
Yes, indeed. Here's a report from a school inspection:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3662839.stm
The full report is here:
http://www.hmie.gov.uk/institute.asp?typ=3&ins=9661
Fairly depressing.
National schools. I assume some countries have at least some sort of local schools for diplomat's kids. I know Israel has something (not sure what) to allow the kids of diplomats to take the Bagrut, which is Israel's high school graduation test.
I don't know if this is a seperate school or just send the kids to the local Jewish school with a few extra classes. Probably depends on which country.
Kepha,
The courts DO allow this, some of the parents in California did try to sue.
When you get the chance take a look at the following:
www.blessedcause.org?News.htm
This will link you in to all the news stories on this.
On the Fresno school, it's a compund calle Baladullah, the school is called the International Quranic Open Unuversity, they are operating a charter school there as well as several others across California, have received over $1 million dollars in taxpayer money and were to get $5 million more in 2002.
They have been linked to the murder of Fresno County Sheriffs Deputy Erik Telon and the books they use to teach with have been pre-face by (Get this) SHEIK MUBARIK ALI SHAH JILANI/GILANI.
www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/566591/posts
Google the following:
islamic schools in virginia, you will find listings of schools all across the u.s. funding by the Saudi's
islam in public schools and you will get sites from all over the world were this garbage is being taught and we are paying for it.
The UK has a long history of supporting the most reactionary elements of Islam for its own benefit. When Israel killed the leader of the terrorist organization Hamas, Sheikh Yassin, It was Jack Straw,the foreign Secretary, that protested in the strongest possible terms for the killing of one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world. The UK government and the BBC have been The stauncest supporters of the mullahs in Iran in the past 25 years. Blame the UK government for giving the green light to the Saudis to treat girls "as inferiors" and making boys as the future terrorists.
B.A.- Iran